Tech News

1. Apple's App Store Control:

   • A U.S. judge has ruled that Apple violated a court order in the Epic Games case, failing to open the App Store to outside payment options and referring Apple for a criminal contempt probe. 👉 bloomberg.com^$
   • Tim Sweeney of Epic Games states Fortnite will return to the US iOS App Store and proposes Apple extends the court's framework worldwide to drop current and future litigation. 👉 x.com
   • The judge recommends criminal content proceedings after saying an Apple VP "lied under oath" and that Tim Cook "chose poorly" by not following the earlier ruling. 👉 x.com

2. Microsoft's Q3 Earnings:

   • Microsoft's Q3 revenue increased by 13% YoY to $70.1B, surpassing estimates, with Microsoft 365 Commercial products and cloud services up 11%. 👉 microsoft.com^$
   • Azure and other cloud services revenue up 33%, above estimates, with Q4 Azure growth also expected to exceed estimates. 👉 cnbc.com
   • Microsoft president Brad Smith says the company would take the US to court if necessary to protect European customers' access to its services. 👉 ft.com^$
   • Satya Nadella noted that Microsoft's ad revenue surpassed $20 billion over the past year. 👉 x.com
   • Satya Nadella stated that 20%-30% of code inside the company's repositories was "written by software" (AI). 👉 techcrunch.com

3. Meta's Q1 Results:

   • Meta reports Q1 revenue up 16% YoY to $42.3B, surpassing estimates, with net income up 35% to $16.6B and daily active people up 6% to 3.43B on average for March 2025. 👉 investor.atmeta.com
   • Meta increases its 2025 capital expenditures to be in the range of $64B to $72B, up from its prior outlook of $60B to $65B. 👉 cnbc.com
   • Zuckerberg says the company plans to add ads to the Meta AI app, plus a paid tier for more compute and functionality. 👉 theverge.com
   • Meta's Reality Labs posts Q1 revenue down 6% YoY to $412M and a $4.2B operating loss. 👉 cnbc.com
   • Mark Zuckerberg says Threads has 350M MAUs, having added 30M in Q1 2025. 👉 techcrunch.com

4. Google's AI and Antitrust Issues:

   • Sundar Pichai said Google expects to strike a Gemini deal with Apple by mid-2025 and Tim Cook told him Apple plans to add more AI models this year. 👉 theverge.com
   • Sundar Pichai said the DOJ's proposal to share Google search data with rivals amounts to a “de facto” spinoff of Google's search engine and its IP. 👉 bloomberg.com^$

5. AI and Machine Learning:

   • Xiaomi unveils open-source AI reasoning model MiMo, joining other Chinese tech leaders. 👉 bloomberg.com^$
   • Meta launches LlamaFirewall, an open-source framework designed to secure AI systems against cyber risks such as prompt injection, jailbreaks, and insecure code. 👉 thehackernews.com
   • Researchers have demonstrated how MCP prompt injection could be used for both attack and defense in AI systems. 👉 thehackernews.com
   • Dwarkesh Podcast has a Q&A with Mark Zuckerberg on Llama 4, benchmarks, AI friends, DeepSeek, China, export controls, open source, monetizing AGI, aligning with Trump, and more. 👉 dwarkesh.com

6. Data Breaches and Cyberattacks:

   • Marks & Spencer breach is linked to Scattered Spider ransomware attack. 👉 bleepingcomputer.com
   • Hitachi Vantara takes servers offline after Akira ransomware attack. 👉 bleepingcomputer.com
   • Ascension discloses a new data breach after a third-party hacking incident. 👉 bleepingcomputer.com
   • FBI shares massive list of 42,000 LabHost phishing domains. 👉 bleepingcomputer.com
   • UK retailer Co-op shuts down some IT systems after a hack attempt. 👉 bleepingcomputer.com

7. Vulnerabilities and Exploits:

   • Apple 'AirBorne' flaws can lead to zero-click AirPlay RCE attacks. 👉 bleepingcomputer.com
   • SonicWall SMA100 VPN vulnerabilities are now being exploited in attacks. 👉 bleepingcomputer.com
   • France ties Russian APT28 hackers to 12 cyberattacks on French organizations. 👉 bleepingcomputer.com
   • Nebulous Mantis is targeting NATO-linked entities with multi-stage malware attacks. 👉 thehackernews.com

8. Duolingo's AI Language Courses:

   • Duolingo launches 148 new language courses developed with generative AI, doubling its offerings for non-English speakers within a year, as it aims for 1B+ users. 👉 bloomberg.com^$
   • Duolingo will replace contract roles with AI as part of efforts to be ‘AI-first’. 👉 wpxi.com

9. China's Tech and AI Development:

   • Huawei has sold 10+ sets of its AI chip cluster CloudMatrix 384, including to data centers that serve Chinese tech companies. 👉 t.co
   • TheWizards, a China-aligned APT group, is linked to a lateral movement tool called Spellbinder that facilitates adversary-in-the-middle (AitM) attacks. 👉 thehackernews.com
   • DeepSeek quietly open sources Prover-V2, a math-focused, 671B-parameter AI model. 👉 scmp.com

10. Payment and Fintech News:

    • Visa announces Visa Intelligent Commerce, opening its payment network to developers building AI agents to find and buy products for users. 👉 zdnet.com
    • Visa partners with Stripe's Bridge to help fintechs launch their own stablecoin-linked card programs in multiple countries at once, starting in Latin America. 👉 bloomberg.com^$
    • Adyen reports Q1 net revenue up 22% YoY to €534.7M, below estimates, and processed payment volume up 6% YoY to €314.8B, below estimates. 👉 bloomberg.com^$
    • Ripple has proposed a takeover of Circle for $4B to $5B, a bid that was rejected as too low. 👉 news.bloombergtax.com

11. Government and Regulation:

    • EU's draft International Digital Strategy acknowledges that decoupling from US tech is “unrealistic” and calls for strategic alliances. 👉 politico.eu
    • The SEC said in February 2025 that it was closing its investigation into the PayPal USD stablecoin “without enforcement action”. 👉 cointelegraph.com
    • Qualcomm forecasts Trump tariffs will dent revenue. 👉 theglobeandmail.com
    • Shein is exploring ways to restructure its US business if Trump sticks with punitive tariffs on Chinese imports. 👉 t.co

12. Other Tech News:

    • Wikipedia will employ AI to enhance the work of its editors and volunteers. 👉 wikimediafoundation.org
    • Raspberry Pi boards have cut product returns by 50% by changing up its pin soldering. 👉 arstechnica.com
    • Clocks on Earth are ticking a bit more regularly thanks to NIST-F4, a new atomic clock at NIST. 👉 nist.gov
    • Firefly Aerospace's sixth Alpha rocket launch failed on April 29, 2025, after an upper-stage anomaly. 👉 space.com
    • Kosmos 482, a failed Soviet Venus probe, is expected to make an uncontrolled reentry in mid-May. 👉 gizmodo.com
    • Marc Andreessen says VC may be one of the last fields safe from AI, as it requires “intangible” skills like psychological insight. 👉 gizmodo.com
    • Robinhood reports Q1 revenue up 50% YoY to $927M, vs. $920.1M est., and increases share buyback authorization by $500M. 👉 coindesk.com

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